History.
Kraskow lies between the towns of Swidnica and Wroclaw, and is one of the most beautiful Rococo palaces in central Europe. It is marvellously situated in the valley of the river Bystrzyca at the foot of Mount Sleza and Gory Sowie Mountains with magnificent views of a picturesque landscape steeped in myth.
The history of the sttlement can be traced back over 750 years, when it was a small agricultural centre with fortifications on the Weistritz. The castle was devastated during the Thirty Years War and subsequently rebuilt and enlarged to include a moat. Until the 14th century the property belonged to the Bishop of Breslau (Wroclaw) as part of the Breslauer Abbey estate. It then moved into the ownership of the Seidlitz family until the turn of the 17th century. Following a brief spell in the hands of the Tschirn family, the palace then returned to the Seidlitz family's estate. With a breif interruption, the property then belonged to theHochbergs and, until 1848, it passed into the possession of the Zedlitz family.
David Sigismund von Zedlitz und Leipe, given the title of Prussian Count in 1741, had the burned-down castle rebuilt in its present form in 1746 to plans which were probably drawn-up by the architect Fischer von Erlach. He had the moat filled-in and the ramparts planted as gardens. In 1845 his grandson Count Wilhelm Sigismund Zedlitz commissioned the world famous landscape gardener Lenne to create a park for the palace. In 1847 the count died without any heirs, and his widow, nee von Pacensky, left the entire estate complete with four other propiertes to her eldest survivor and nephew Georg Gustav von Salisch family until 1945. In the years to follow the palace was left to fall derelict despite its artistic and architectural merit until 1992, when the current owner, an Austrian, purchased the ruin. The entire property was meticulously restored and converted into a luxury hotel.